Friday, May 31, 2013

Much to her chagrin, the last 48 hours worth of contractions have yielded little results. The contractions were the long, slow, unproductive kind, and now they have stopped. At least she can get some sleep now.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

I am presently killing time by downloading the most recent pictures that we have taken. Some of them are from this year's garden; taken because I intended to write a post about it. That will have to wait, unless...
You see, I'm currently awaiting a call from my daughter to tell me whether or not the midwife has decided that she is in labor and that I'm to head on up there. I'm about an hour and a half away, so I'm really hoping she doesn't go too quickly, if indeed this is the real thing. She's had lots of bouts of contractions in the past week or so, so we're just not sure. I'd be nice if this is the real thing, and I'll let you know if it was as soon as I can. If it's not labor, I may just get around to that gardening post tomorrow today. After sleeping in late, because it's already past 1 am.
Until then, here are a couple of the most recent shots of her.

She looks about done - wouldn't you say?

*I should add a note in here that I'm not worried she'll have an unusually quick delivery (though my mother was certainly the queen of that) it's just that they had timed the contractions for 4 hours before they called me and the midwife, then it will take them almost 2 hours to get to the clinic, and after they receive a verdict, it will take me another hour and a half. Plenty of babies have been born in 6-8 hours, so we shall see.

Friday, May 24, 2013

It's a very busy time of year. What with Mother's Day, and all the graduation services we've been invited to, we've certainly had a lot to do, but our chief concern was Ri's baby shower. It wasn't exactly a typical baby shower, but that's just how we do things. Dr. Seuss was the theme for our party, and all family members (as opposed to just women and girls) were welcome.

The street sign from "The Lorax" welcomed everyone at the corner of the sidewalk and the driveway.

And the Onc-ler's sign greeted them at the front door.

We had to clear out the garage in order to set up extra tables for the food and all the guests, but brown Bar-ba-loots graced the door that led into the garage.

The Onc-ler himself hung above the freezer in the garage, where we served the food.

And Truffula trees, along with Swomee Swans, decorated the wall behind the cake table.

Now don't go thinking we only used "The Lorax" for our inspiration.

What Dr. Seuss party would be complete without the Cat in the Hat?

From "There's a Wocket in my Pocket", we had Nupboards for the cupboards,

and we found ways to incorporate many of the other books as well.

The napkins had the Cat's hat, and the plates were, of course, from "One Fish, Two Fish".

Instead of the normal baby shower games, we had things like Dr. Seuss trivia, which included questions from many of the books, a two legged, Thing One and Thing Two race (only the children volunteered for this one), and an observation game where folks had to locate all the Sneetches' beach balls that were placed around the house and garage.

The cake incorporated elements from "One Fish, Two Fish", "The Sneetches", and "The Cat in the Hat".

Many, many, many thanks go out to my sweet Bre because she painted every one of the decorations. Isn't she just incredible?

She even made all the decorations for the cake. I just baked and iced it. All the detail work was solely due to her talent.

Decor and food were not all that screamed Dr. Seuss. Although you can't see it well, Ri's shirt reads, "Future Thing" with an arrow pointing to her belly, and she got a couple of little onsies with "Cutest little Thing on Earth" on them.

Can you tell we really like Dr. Seuss?

She received a lot of wonderful gifts and everyone had a great time. Now we're just anxiously awaing the arrival. Signs are good that we shouldn't have to wait much longer.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Friday, May 10, 2013

My baby has been busy getting ready for her baby. You can see the new baby's room here. We had her baby shower on Saturday and she's finishing her shopping for the last few things that she didn't get. She'll be all set very soon.
I'll make another post detailing the shower, but for now I thought I'd let you see the gifts I made her. When she was preparing to get married I had an overwhelming desire to make gifts for her; to somehow extend my love for her into her new home. A cross stitched towel in the bathroom, a quilt in the bedroom, hanging towels and knitted washcloths in the kitchen and a cross stitched breadcloth in the dining room. Little touches that I hoped would help it seem more like home for her. Once she let us know she was expecting a baby, I was again moved to make gifts. Little bits of grandma's love to wrap around the baby. I'm not quite sure why it's been so important to me, but it has, and making it all was very therapeutic. You'll just have to trust me on that.

The very first thing I made for her was this knitted blanket. I really liked the pale green, which will be fine if she has a little girl later on, and the yarn was so soft.

This was a quilt kit she saw one day when we were in Joann's. She thought it was so cute, so I picked it up and made it for her. She loved the elephant (she likes those anyway), and she thought the turtle was adorable.

I made this two sided, fleece blanket based on a pattern that can be found on the Martha Stewart website. Instead of using one of the applique patterns (for ducks, or hearts) offered with the blanket instructions, I traced the turtle from her quilt kit, then used my printer to reduce the size.

I found some variegated yarn at Michael's that went along with the color scheme so well I couldn't resist knitting her another blanket. I know, I know - lots of blankets. But their house is on the cool side, and you never know how often a baby will spit up and need a clean blanket.

I found the pattern for this online for free. There are several sites that offer up free baby afgan patterns. Though you can't see it well from the photo, there are knitted lines running the length of this blanket. I thought the pattern needed to be simple given the variegation in the yarn.

The same manufacturer of the quilt kit had a kit for a shopping buggy cover,

and offered laminated fabric that I was able to make into a wet bag. Now she'll have a place for any soiled clothes or spit cloths so they won't dirty other things in the diaper bag.

I also cross stitched a bib,

and a hooded baby towel. I had a knitted washcloth that happened to be in a blue varigated yarn so I decided to give that to her, and I used a little of the extra toweling material to make a couple more washcloths.

And finally, I made her a diaper bag. This is actually a pattern for a picnic tote, but it's the one she liked. It has a draw-string top that will allow for a lot of stuff to be put inside if needed. There are plenty of pockets around the outside and a few inside as well. I took her shopping to pick out the fabric, and though you can't see it well from this shot, the uppermost fabric is a nursery print that has elephants on it. It's really cute.

So you see? I have been very busy - hence the neglect of my blog. I'll try to be better now that all that work is out of the way. :)

A Bit About Me

I am a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom who is still learning everything, from French to knitting. My dear husband is the head of this group of petticoats. My blog shares a bit about things we love to do, are learning to do, or sometimes just what's driving us crazy.